Elizabeth Warren live-chatting earlier today with Crooks and Liars. Blue America and C&L are very proud to be supporting her Senate race, and there's still time to contribute any amount to her day-long money bomb. Thanks for supporting a real progressive voice for US Senate!

Open Thread below....

On election night 2010, when progressives around the country were pummeled and defeated, one race kept us all up late, hoping against hope that we'd have a memorable victory among the defeats. As it turned out New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district candidate Ann McLane Kuster lost to Charlie Bass that night by only a few votes, but showed that even in a GOP tsunami she had what it took to compete as a progressive. So naturally she's challenging Bass to a rematch in 2012.

This time there's no doubt about what she's up against. Bass has turned out to be a very typical Republican by voting to end Medicare and then whining about semantics when Democratic groups called him on it. He's collecting money from all the usual suspects, notably energy and insurance companies who have business in front of the energy and commerce committee, along with practically every other lobbyist from tobacco to Walmart. It didn't take him long to put his hand out and start collecting the big bucks from the corporations and the 1 percent.

By contrast Annie has had over 11,000 individual donations, 90% of which are under a hundred dollars. (You can join the crowd, by donating to her campaign here.)

She's running a grassroots campaign with an army of progressives on the ground and around the country who are anxious to see a "frugal yankee" put these priorities to work for the people:

I believe we need to cut wasteful government spending -- like the billions in subsidies for oil companies, the corporate tax breaks for moving jobs overseas, and the billions more spent on redundant weapons systems that our military leaders have identified as wasteful and unneeded. But instead of these cuts, the US House of Representatives is cutting what we need most: education, public safety, and the clean energy research that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil. It makes no sense. America can do better than this -- so, it's time for all of us to do something about it.

From the beginning Annie has been a strong voice against the American empire, opposing the Iraq invasion, the Afghanistan surge and additional war funding over the past few years. In 2010 she was endorsed by NH Peace Action which said "It is Ms. Kuster's outspoken criticism of the war in Iraq and the surge in Afghanistan that brought us to this decision." She says that everywhere she goes in her district, people are tired of war and want to bring the troops home and spend the money to rebuild America --- just like many of you.

America can do better --- with the help of dedicated, energetic progressives in the House, fighting for the people instead of catering to the special interests. Blue America is very excited to once again endorse Ann McLane Kuster for the congressional seat in New Hampshire's second district and are pleased that she has accepted our invitation to join us for the first Blue America chat of the 2012 campaign.

Please join Annie and Howie, John and I for a freewheeling conversation about her campaign, the state of politics and her plans to help us all create a better country for the 99%.

And if you would like to help her with this grassroots endeavor, you can contribute to her campaign here.

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Elizabeth Warren just made it official-- or official enough for ActBlue to open up a contribution slot for her-- which means she filed with the FEC. So... we added her to the Blue America Senate page, a page with two candidates-- her and Bernie.

If we collect $2,000 for her over the weekend, one random lucky donor will win a gorgeous RIAA Lenny Kravitz platinum award for his Greatest Hits album (above).

Last Sunday I posted about the likelihood that she would run for the Massachusetts Senate seat currently occupied by Tea Party flip-flopper Scott Brown. It seemed all but certain. Disappointed and disallusioned progressives in at least one state will sure have a reason to flock to the polls in November of 2012! At the time she said "I spent years working against special interests and have the battle scars to show it-- and I have no intention of stopping now. It is time for me to think hard about what role I can play next to help rebuild a middle class that has been hacked at, chipped at, and pulled at for more than a generation-- and that that is under greater strain every day." Music to all of our ears. Let's encourage her-- and imagine her and Bernie Sanders working together for ordinary American families... in the U.S. Senate, that hideous, hidebound bastion of privilege and entitlement.

So, again, contribute any amount before midnight and if we reach $2,000 for her, one donor will be thanked by Blue America with the beautiful Lenny Kravitz triple platinum award.

It's Special Election Day in the West Los Angeles district of CA-36, replacing retired Representative Jane Harman. Angelenos have a chance to vote for a true progressive, Blue America-endorsed Debra Bowen.

Tuesday's special election in California's 36th District is a prequel to what will likely be the main event on July 12. If no candidate gets a majority of votes cast - highly unlikely in the crowded 16 person field - the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff in the first test of the state's new "jungle primary" system.

The Frontrunners: Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn jumped into the race almost immediately after now-former Rep. Jane Harman announced in February she'd step down to head the Woodrow Wilson Center. Hahn and Harman are close, and while Hahn doesn't have the former congresswoman's official endorsement, Harman did provide her with a heads-up she was leaving. Hahn comes from a well-known political family - her brother, James, served as the city's mayor from 2001 until 2005, and her father, Kenneth, was a county supervisor for forty years.

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen took a bit longer to officially decide, but since her entrance, the two women have been at the top of a very crowded pack in the all-party primary. Hahn quickly rolled out endorsement after endorsement of other Members of the state's Congressional delegation, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and even former House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt. She's also garnered most of the labor endorsements in the race.

Bowen has worked to paint herself as the more progressive candidate in the race, particularly on environmental issues, and has been endorsed by Democracy for America, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, and the Sierra Club.

Hahn is another BlueDog-cum-DINO, like Harman. Do we really need another one of those in the House? Debra Bowen (here's her Blue America page and the live chat she did with us in March) has been fantastic advocating for fair and transparent elections as Secretary of State and it would be incredible to get a clear and unapologetic liberal in office. This is our first "jungle primary" (I really hate that term), so it's critical that Bowen gets the turnout she needs to be in the final runoff election in July.

Please, if you are in the 36th District, do not forget to vote and support our candidate, Debra Bowen.

As you may or may not know, Howie, John and I are based in Los Angeles, and as progressives nothing has stuck in our craws more than the fact that that Jane Harman was able to hang onto her seat in California's 36th district (John's home district!) despite the fact that she was a Big Money Blue Dog who barely set foot in the area. When she announced her resignation from Congress we whooped for joy. Her retirement to the world of think tank advocacy has given us another opportunity to elect a real progressive to fill the seat.

Amazingly, we are blessed with two fine progressives who have thrown their hats into the ring: Marcy Winograd, who we endorsed in the two primaries she ran against Harman, and Debra Bowen the current Secretary of State who we also endorsed in her two statewide runs. It's an unusual and luxurious choice for progressives -- it so rarely happens that we have more than one great candidate.

We are fond of Winograd and greatly admired her willingness to take on the Democratic establishment as she did at last year's convention. That kind of pluck is in short supply. She is a stalwart progressive and a good friend and it was a privilege to support her in 2006 and 2010. However, after much deliberation we have decided to endorse Debra Bowen in this race. The reason is quite simple. We believe that all other things being equal, Bowen simply has the better chance to win.

Bowen is a hero to California progressives, and you may know of her through her national leadership on election integrity and internet issues as California Secretary of State. Indeed, she decided to run for the office after the debacle of 2000 for reasons I imagine many of us can relate to:

“I became motivated to get it right before we had another horrible disaster for our whole democracy,” said Bowen. “We couldn’t afford another election where there was vast mistrust of the results.”

She ended up winning the John F Kennedy Profile in Courage award for her work on election integrity.

With her high profile as a reformer and advocate for government transparency as Secretary of State, she has been a member in good standing of the Progressive Movement from the beginning, speaking at Netroots Nation and identifying herself with our cause. What you may not know is that previous to holding statewide office, she represented 90% of CA 36 for 14 years in the state Assembly and Senate and that she has a stellar progressive track record as a legislator as well. She is very popular in the district to this day among moderates and progressives alike, who see her as "their" statewide candidate. It's a big advantage and one that we think will propel her to victory over all the others in the race.

As a movement progressive, Bowen will naturally lend her strong voice to advocate for working families in congress and stand up for civil rights and civil liberties. Her record is clear on that. And with her reformer credentials, along with her dedication to green energy (her first foray into politics was working with Heal the Bay back in the 1980s) she is perfectly positioned to be a leader for us, for our time.

As a progressive netroots candidate, Bowen is naturally running a people powered campaign and we urge you to contribute to her cause. She will have a race on her hands with Winograd, LA Machine City Councilwoman Janice Hahn (Harman's hand-picked successor) and wealthy well connected Republican Mike Ross running and she'll needs our help. (Read Howie's post at Down With Tyranny for more on the machinations of the Hahn campaign.) We have a real chance to elect a movement progressive to this seat. Please donate if you can.

And now it's my pleasure to introduce you to Blue America candidate for congress from the 36th district, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen. Please give her a nice welcome:

I think most of us have come to realize that something has gone terribly wrong. The rampant cronyism, corporatism, demagoguery and sheer irrationality of our politics is almost impossible to wrap our minds around and I worry that we are losing our ability to see clearly. These are confusing, frustrating times with pressures from major social change and global transition bearing down and leaving us disoriented and off-kilter.

But all is not lost. The world has seen big changes before and this country has faced greater challenges. It does require, however, that we seek out and support new political leadership. The system is no longer functioning on behalf of the people and it's going to take smart, creative, energetic people with fresh ideas and a different perspective to turn it around.

We at Blue America believe that Nicholas Ruiz III is one of those leaders. Howie introduced him to his readers like this:

Over the course of the next few months, Blue America plans to help you get to know another courageous, fighting progressive from central Florida, Nicholas Ruiz III. A young father and university professor, Nicholas ran for Congress on the Green Party platform in 2010 and has since re-registered as a Democrat. He's already challenging extreme right-wing Republican freshman Sandy Adams for the right to represent FL-24, folks in Orange, Seminole, Volusia and Brevard counties who dumped one-term conservative Democrat Suzanne Kosmas in November. Kosmas was one of 39 Democrats to join with the Republicans voting against the historic Affordable Health Care for America Act on November 7, 2009. She and Sandy Adams saw eye to eye on that one-- tax-payer subsidized health care for them and their families-- but no health care reform for the people of Central Florida...Last November Democrats didn't have much of a choice. Kosmas was against health care reform and Adams was even more against it!

Here's Ruiz, the progressive alternative:

We must decide, once and for all, what sort of society defines America. We have already decided that law enforcement (i.e. the police department) is a guaranteed service for all, regardless of social or economic status. We have also decided that the fire department is a guaranteed service. Our society, rightfully so, honors both of these public features. They are freely available to all, regardless of the size of one's wallet.

Why should healthcare be any different?

I don't know about you, but I haven't heard anyone making that sort of argument on the stump. They talk about "cost curves" and issue ten point plans and explain about how the most important part of anything is free markets and "consumer choice." They are making their arguments almost entirely on conservative terms and in the process they fail to give people a way to understand why government makes sense. Voters are adrift, knowing that their lives are insecure and that they pay taxes and that government plays a role but they don't have a way of thinking about it anymore outside of rightwing cant and some vague moral notions that aren't well articulated.

We need politicians who can make the progressive case for political action and empower the people to make reasoned decisions and Nicholas Ruiz is one of them He is a dynamic, creative thinker who isn't bound by the artificial parameters of the stale political debate. He's pressing against them, offering up ideas that should be part of the dialog if only our leadership were willing to build a rationale for real progressivism.

Like this, for instance:

That's not something you hear every day, but it should be. This is how we widen the terms of the debate and begin to get progressive ideas back into American politics.

It is my great pleasure to welcome Nicholas Ruiz III to our first Blue America chat of 2011.

I have to tell you, watching John Boehner give a speech about economic policy is like watching Tiger Woods shilling for FRC's Defense of Marriage act. It was very disturbing to see a man who used to pass out tobacco money checks on the floor of Congress actually express an opinion on the state of economy. He's been living off of wingnut welfare and corporate payoffs for a very long time. Did you think Blue America would let him get away with it?

Digby writes:

He's got a real gift for saying absolutely nothing with the careless aplomb of an empty playboy years past his prime.

Unfortunately, he's actually a thoroughly corrupt tool of corporate interests who wields great power over millions of people and as the potential speaker of the House his actions are of much greater interest than his shallow rhetoric.

Blue America and its partner Americans for America responded to his dull remarks with its latest ad set to start running tomorrow morning. His actions speak much louder than his words:

A big tip 'o the hat to Dan Manatt and his creative team at Americans for America for turning that ad around immediately upon hearing Boehner's plodding words this morning. But for the millions of Americans who are suffering because of Republican policies that created their problems and Republican obstructionism that's keeping anyone from solving them, it would be very hard to find inspiration in such drivel.

This ad is going to run immediately and it's not an easy thing to produce something this quickly. Dan came up huge. Another positive is that Justin has been getting endorsement after endorsement from the Dems in Congress.

Howie adds:

Notice this DNC ad below, which I like a lot. They used it yesterday-- while Justin Coussoule was racking up endorsements from Tim Ryan (D-OH), Steve Filner (D-CA) and the Congressional Progressive Caucus-- to ask for money: "Boehner's horrible; he's going to eat your children; send us your money." But not a world about Boehner having an opponent. But he does; it's Justin Coussoule and you can donate towards electing him and defeating Boehner right here. Remember, when Boehner is shrieking "Where are the jobs, Mr. President," it isn't the DCCC or DNC telling voters in southwestern Ohio that it was Boehner who engineered the 2008 no-strings-attached Wall Street bailout; it's Justin Coussoule. And it isn't the DNC or the DCCC telling voters in Ohio that the trade policies, like NAFTA, that Boehner has been pushing for two decades explains where the jobs are; it's Justin Coussoule. Let's help him.

And don't forget to support our BoehnerTV campaign too.

You gotta love Alan Grayson. He doesn't pull his punches, and throws wingnut tactics right back in their faces.

But the response does not refute any of the charges leveled in the ad – titled “Taliban Dan Webster” - which claimed that Webster, a former state Senate majority leader and state House speaker, wanted to make divorce illegal and deny abused women health care. Grayson’s ad even claims that Webster “tried to prohibit alimony to an ‘adulterous wife’ but not an adulterous husband,’” and that he “wants to force women to stay in abusive marriages.”

Webster’s response also does not address footage in the ad of Webster saying, “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husband,” and “She should submit to me – that’s in the Bible.”

I understand that the country is angry at the state of our economy, but that can't justify Republican candidates like Daniel Webster. His beliefs aren't representative of anything this country represents except for the End of Days religious freaks.

The Villagers never had a problem when Republicans and Conservatives lied and said that Democrats wanted the terrorists to win after the 9/11 attacks so Bush could win reelection. In Grayson's ad, there is no evidence that he's wrong about any of Webster's arcane and insane religious beliefs.

Digby writes about the usual Villager response to anything Alan Grayson does.

Uhm. They can't refute it because it's all true. Webster is a far right Christian Reconstructionist loon.

Mrs Webster knows very well that it is a sin to lie so she cleverly accuses Grayson of being untruthful without refuting the irrefutable:

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Jonathan Chait got the ball rolling from the left wing elitists when he attacked Jack Conway's Aqua Buddha ad against Rand Paul when he wrote that he had sympathy for Paul. Many of us objected to this for many reasons, but how does Chait answer the criticisms? He makes shit up. Here's his defense of Paul:

Is Rand Paul misleading the electorate about his religion? Sure. But he's not running on a religious platform. It's Conway who's making religion an issue. I think an atheist, which is what I'm petty sure Paul is, ought to be able to run for office without having his belief system publicly interrogated.

Is he this naive about our current political system? When hasn't a Democrat's religion been question? John Kennedy's Catholicism was a big issue in 1960. The question of his electability because of his religious beliefs was a central question in that election. And since Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed injected religion into our mainstream political discourse beginning in the 1980s, it's only gotten much, much worse.

Chait admits that Rand Paul is probably lying about his belief in religion -- which I might agree with, but then he insists that even an atheist should be allowed to run for office. I agree with that completely -- except for one thing: Republicans don't believe in that assessment. Rand Paul doesn't believe that assessment. Republicans throw religion into every part of their party and into every debate we have, but for some reason others are forbidden to bring up the issue of religious values. Either Chait hasn't been following Baby Paul's campaign or is ignorant about what Rand has publicly stated about his views on religion. Paul did make religion part of the debate after he trumpeted his Christian faith -- evidently in contrast with Conway -- back in May, via Sarah Posner:

Appearing on The Brody File, Rand Paul, who believes that portions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act need "further discussion" and may violate private business owners' First Amendment rights, said that we wouldn't really need laws in this country if everyone were a good Christian:

I'm a Christian. We go to the Presbyterian Church. My wife’s a Deacon there and we’ve gone there ever since we came to town. I see that Christianity and values is the basis of our society. . . . 98% of us won’t murder people, won’t steal, won’t break the law and it helps a society to have that religious underpinning. You still need to have the laws but I think it helps to have a people who believe in law and order and who have a moral compass or a moral basis for their day to day life.

Although Paul attends a mainline Protestant church, in his comments one might hear an echo of Christian Reconstructionism. RD contributor Julie Ingersoll, an expert on Christian Reconstructionism, once described it to me this way: "Reconstructionists claim to have an entirely integrated, logically defensible Christian worldview. Reconstructionism addresses everything you have to think about." In other words, as a society we should follow (preferable) biblical law, and dispense with all but a small handful of civil laws.

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In the future, these days will be defined as the days Republican hypocrites roamed the earth, terrorizing anyone and everyone who isn't in lockstep with them. In what can only be defined as a cynical, manipulative, hypocritical move, Blue America is being sued by a right-wing organization called Let Freedom Ring for allegedly coordinating independent expenditures with Nancy Pelosi.

Howie Klein:

And last week our attorney informed us that a right-wing extremist group, Let Freedom Ring, had filed what amounts to a frivolous nuisance suit against us. Let Freedom Ring's president, Colin Hanna, and counsel, Cleta Mitchell, both well-known right-wing Beltway crackpots, claim that Blue America's Independent Expenditure Committee coordinated activities with Nancy Pelosi. Although this isn't just untrue but patently absurd, it will cost of thousands of dollars to defend ourselves from the baseless accusations.

This, after millions were spent by anonymous shadow donors to defeat Democrats in the midterms, and those same shadow donor groups admitted to co-ordinating expenditures with each other.

The complaint is signed by Cleta Mitchell, Grover Norquist spokesman, anti-ACORN crusader, and current defender of Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell's campaign indiscretions. Mitchell gave a 1 1/2 hour webinar on corporate independent expenditures for Foley and Lardner's corporate clients on February 3, 2010 to educate clients of what they could now do without disclosing anything to the general public.

Despite Mitchell's stellar understanding of campaign finance law, it certainly appears that she and Let Freedom Ring accuse others of what they intentionally do. For example:

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